Publication Detail

The Iterative Design of a University Energy Dashboard

UCD-ITS-RP-16-45

Journal Article

Electric Vehicle Research Center, Energy Efficiency Center

Suggested Citation:
Salmon, Kiernan, Joshua Morejohn, Angela Sanguinetti, Marco Pritoni (2016) The Iterative Design of a University Energy Dashboard. Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, Journal Article UCD-ITS-RP-16-45

Energy dashboards are monitoring and display systems that provide information about building energy use. Dashboards may provide information, alarms, and complex trends to support engineers in identifying energy inefficiencies in a building. Public interfaces may contain simpler trends, with a greater focus on aesthetics and framing of content to promote interest and engagement. We have developed the Campus Energy Education Dashboard (CEED), a map-based dashboard that shows energy data for buildings on a large university campus. Analytic features, including energy use intensity metrics, real-time demand data, and historic data are available for our engineer and data analyst stakeholders. For students and staff, we focus on engagement features, such as providing context for the data, prioritizing aesthetics, and layering information in successive levels of detail. CEED enables Facilities Management to improve energy efficiency and empowers building occupants with knowledge of and input into campus energy operations. We will describe our design process, which included A/B and usability testing of design elements that informed successive iterations of the dashboard.

Suggested citation: Salmon, Kiernan, Joshua Morejohn, Angela Sanguinetti, Marco Pritoni (2016) The Iterative Design of a University Energy Dashboard. Proceedings of American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy 2016 Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings.